True, but don't forget that even if you have a visa they can still send you home again if they get suspicious when you arrive at immigration.
I once got taken aside and given the 3rd degree at Washington Dulles just because I said I was visiting friends. The whole US system is a mess. Two of the 9/11 hijackers got posthumous M-1 visas in the mail. Even queueing times are often ridiculous, whilst we're on the topic.
There's a lot of politics in progress, though, and the situation should get better fairly soon.
As an aside, I just checked the Applicability of Aviation and Transportation Security Act referred to by the US Embassy's email above. Section 111, "FLIGHT SCHOOL SECURITY", is only applicable to "training to operate jet-propelled aircraft." Seems these civil servants don't know their own legislation very well. It looks like a standard response and they quite likely won't know the difference between SEP and jet-propelled even if you got into a conversation with them about it. Of course, as people have said, the risk you take is that the INS officer you meet on arrival isn't too well informed either.
Last edited by carb; 14th Jan 2003 at 16:18.